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Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Writing Mojo: The Why, What, Where, When and How of Writing

Welcome to the first official installment of Kricket's Writing Tips for Beginners! Thanks so much for dropping by and I hope you learn something today.

Let's jump right in. So, you might be wondering, what is Writing Mojo, Kricket? Writing Mojo is the very basic building blocks of your writing. Your mojo is going to be different from every other persons mojo, it is unique and only you can figure out what yours is.

Writing Mojo answers these five questions.

Why do you write?

What do you write?

Where do you write?

When do you write?

How do you write?

The first question is the most important and might be the hardest to answer. Why do YOU write? What is inspiring or motivating you to think, "I want to be a writer"? There are a million answers to this question, unique to every writer.

Some examples are:

I want to tell stories

I want to share my thought/beliefs with the world

I want to get published

I want to be famous/rich (not the best reason, but we'll get to that)

The voices in my head tell me to

Okay, exercise time! Now, go grab some paper and a pen or open a word document and title it MY WRITING MOJO. Then answer the question: Why do I write?

I (Kricket) write because I want to create worlds and characters that people will fall in love with ﻿and enjoy spending their time with.

This is one of the most important sentences you will write, ever. This is the core of your Writing Mojo. This is your mission statement. This is the thought you will fall back on when the writing gets tough. If it helps, print your statement out and tape it to your computer or the inside of your writing notebook, somewhere you will see it as you write.

Okay, now that you know Why you write, lets move on to What you write. This you probably already know. You know what type of writing you want to do, short stories or novels or poetry﻿ or some type of non-fiction. You might even have an idea of the genre or subject of your writing, fantasy or mommy issues, or whatever.

Back to your Writing Mojo page: under your Why statement, state what you write.

I (Kricket) write fantasy and/or science fiction novels.

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Of course, this can change. Hell, even your Why can change. But if at some point you decide that writing short fantasy stories just isn't doing it for you, then you can try something new. Never be afraid to try something new.

Now, on to the last three: Where, When and How. These are pretty easy questions to answer but still require some consideration. These things might seem super basic and silly, but if you don't think about it now, you might find your self a little lost.

So consider where you will do most of your writing. And yes, "Anywhere" is an answer. When will you do most of your writing? And How will you do the majority of your writing? Write this down with the rest of your mojo.

I (Kricket) write at my kitchen table, all throughout the day (but mostly mornings) and I use my computer and MS Word.

I know, it seems so silly to actually write it down like that, but this will become important for the next part of this series, Your Routine: How To Make Writing A Part Of Your Daily Life. Also, as you begin to write you will find it necessary to refer back to your Writing Mojo to see if there are any adjustments that you need to make.

Again, thank you so much for reading. Please leave a comment, or share this post if you liked it. Also, don't be afraid to ask questions, either in the comments, or you can email me using the form in the upper left hand corner. Have a great Wednesday and see you next week!